Triathlon: U.S. Women Secure Top Three Ranking Spots

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (March 19, 2004) - U.S. elite triathletes Barb Lindquist, Laura Reback and Sheila Taormina are once again the top three women in the world.

Taormina's second-place finish at the Bay Islands International Triathlon on March 6 moved her ahead of Australia's Michellie Jones and back into the No. 3 spot in the International Triathlon Union world rankings.

Lindquist (Victor, Idaho) remains in first place and Reback (North Palm Beach, Fla.) is No. 2.

Taormina (Livonia, Mich.) finished second at the Bay Islands Triathlon to her U.S. teammate Susan Williams (Littleton, Colo.). Williams won the international distance race in 2 hours, 13 minutes, 42 seconds. Taormina finished second in 2:17:21 and Virginia Berasategui of Spain was third in 2:19:31.

Williams' victory moved her up in the ITU rankings to No. 29 and she is No. 5 in the United States.

Michael Smedley (Buchanan, Mich.) was the top U.S. men's finisher in Honduras with a fifth-place finish in 2:05:12. Smedley improved his ITU ranking from 127 to 114 to put him comfortably in the picture for Olympic qualifying. Triathletes must be ranked in the top 125 in the world to try to qualify for the Olympic Games.

Eneko Llanos of Spain won the men's race in 2:03:42. Mexico's Javier Rosas was second (2:03:53) and Austria's Franz Hofer was third (2:04:20).

For complete results, go to www.triathlon.org.

Winter Triathlon

At the ITU Winter Triathlon World Championships on March 13 in Wildhaus, Switzerland, U.S. elite Michael Kloser (Vail, Colo.) placed 17th in the men's race and Elizabeth Isom (Vail, Colo.) placed 13th in the women's race. Sigi Bauer of Austria won the men's race in 1:10:21 and Sigrid Lang of Germany won the women's race in 1:18:11.

The course consisted of a 1.4k running lap, a 2.6k mountain bike lap and a 1.5 cross-country ski lap.

For more information, go to www.triathlon.org.

Pan American Championships

Thirty U.S. elite triathletes, led by Taormina and U.S. No. 1 Hunter Kemper (Longwood, Fla.) are on the start list for Saturday's Acapulco ITU Pan American Championships in Mexico.

Both U.S. and international triathletes will be in Mexico hoping to boost their ITU rankings and warm up for Olympic qualifying. A regional championship race is worth twice the points of a regular ITU points race.

Temperatures in Acapulco have been in the 90s with high humidity, which could make the international distance race a test of endurance.

Besides Kemper, who is the highest ranked man in the race at No. 11 in the world, the U.S. men's team will include Doug Friman (Tucson, Ariz.; No. 33 world; No. 2 U.S.), Joe Umphenour (Bellevue, Wash.; No. 34 world; No. 3 U.S.), Mark Fretta (Portland, Ore.; No. 53 world; No. 4 U.S.), Brian Fleischmann (Jacksonville, Fla.; No. 56 world, No. 5 U.S.), Victor Plata (San Luis Obispo, Calif.; No. 57 world, No. 6 U.S.), Seth Wealing (Fowler, Ind.; No. 76 world, No. 8 U.S.), Andy Potts (Princeton, N.J.; No. 92 world, No. 9 U.S.) and Michael Smedley (Buchanan, Mich.; No. 114 world, No. 10 U.S.) among many others.

Joining Taormina in the women's race from the United States will be Joanna Zeiger (Baltimore, Md.; No. 28 world; No. 4 U.S.), Amanda Pagon (Glenn Dale, Md.; No. 81 world; No. 7 U.S.), Kelly Cook (Marietta, Ga.; No. 105 world, No. 12 U.S.) and Julie Swail (Irvine, Calif.; No. 108 world; No. 13 U.S.), among many others.

National Select Team Resident Coach John Crawley and National Teams Program Director Libby Burrell have traveled to Acapulco to support the U.S. athletes.

For full start lists and more details, go to www.triathlon.org.